Genzyme attempts hostile takeover of Canadian drug company

In an unusual hostile takeover attempt, Genzyme Corp. today launched a $380 million cash offer to buy a Canadian drug-development company whose board of directors has twice rejected its bid.

AnorMed Inc. , based near Vancouver, is a 10-year-old company with an experimental drug for patients with lymphoma, myeloma, and other blood cancers.

In a statement, AnorMed's directors said the company was worth more than the $8.55 a share Genzyme is offering. AnorMed's stock nearly doubled upon news of Genzyme's offer, jumping 95 percent from $5.03 to $9.82.

The hostile bid marks a departure in the closely networked world of life-sciences companies. Deals are usually negotiated quietly and announced only after the directors of both firms have agreed to terms. It is also unusual for Genzyme, the Cambridge company that has built itself into one of the world's largest biotechnology players by absorbing numerous other companies into its $17 billion empire.

Most recently it bought the kidney-drug developer Bone Care International Inc. in June 2005 for $600 million, and the cancer-drug company Ilex Oncology Inc. for $1 billion in December 2004.

Like those deals, the offer for AnorMed represents an effort by Genzyme to widen its range of drugs and other healthcare products. Currently the company's sales lean heavily on a handful of high-priced drugs for extremely rare genetic diseases, but during the past several years it has been steadily investing in new areas, including kidney disease and cancer treatment.

AnorMed would expand Genzyme's transplant-drug division, which now relies almost exclusively on the anti-rejection drug Thymoglobulin , derived from rabbit blood.
(By Stephen Heuser, Globe staff)